Quick update on our season so far. It's safe to say that September (maybe that should be Cep-tember) turned out to be the best cep season of our foraging lives. Not to gloat but it was the biggest haul we have ever had.

Particularly noteworthy are the dozen or so Boletus Aereus we found all in one spot by a river bank (see the dark brown caps at the bottom of the tray on the right?) and two beastly individuals of 500 grams or so that were found that day.

After a couple of weeks we returned, this time to a different section of the forest and we finally found the illusive patch of girolles that we had been dreaming about for years. Neatly tucked away among the decaying leaf litter and bracken was a whole troop of the bright yellow trumpets pushing out of the ground. I imagine this must have been what the 49ers of the california gold rush felt like when they struck into a walnut sized nugget... I remember literally jumping into the air at the site of them!

A great season, topped off with some great jams, chutneys, pickled walnuts and walnut and sloe liqueurs (my sloe gin is already a gorgeous ruby red).

Anyway the ceps are almost certainly all gone now and we'll be going into winter chanterelle picking mode next.

Sorry to hear it hasn't been too good a year for you guys. Surprised to hear that considering the way our forays have gone so far. September I think is typically better than the later months, even though ceps are about through October and November.

We timed it perfectly this time around, with the warm August followed by heavy rain and more heat and more rain they all just came out of hiding.

Falstaff - I've never done it with rum but did you make sure to add sugar? A must to counter the bitter tanniney taste of walnut. I've tried a different recipe this year, with wine and armagnac but my uncle just uses eau-de-vie (70% pure alcohol verging on ethanol) and dark sugar. Cutting the walnuts into quarters is also best for liqueurs, unless your pickling them (in brine - totally different recipe obviously). You may want to look on google for some Nocino recipes.

Cheers

Ps I woul take them out if they have been in there since July... And also, you could still try adding the sugar now and seeing what happens once it's dissolved. Maybe 300g or so but maybe check some recipes on google.